Running on Empty Dreams Page #8

I play the role of John Duncan,

which is Corey's best

friend in the Gulf War.

He's just a good ol' boy.

Back home, everyone loves him.

Speaks the truth.

He doesn't really sugar coat anything.

But you can't write the ending

to somebody else's life, man.

It ain't up to you.

I first started when I was 4,

and now I'm 7, so that's 3 years.

He's a 5-year-old kid who

goes to kindergarten,

and he has a mom and a dad,

and their names are Corey and Sydney.

I had an opportunity to be

the location scout, which was really fun,

very rewarding.

People tell you, "Yes, absolutely.

"You can use our place,"

and then when you go back to

sign the property release

form, they come back and say,

"Sorry, we changed our mind."

Here's the story:

Now, we're shootin' at this park.

We found this park and we kept it

because originally, our houses locations

was this one over here was

supposed to be Jane's house,

and that one over there, 519,

that was supposed to be Sydney's house,

and, like, last minute,

we had them locked down,

whatever happened, they fell through,

and so that was part of

our saga and challenge

of getting the houses down on 4th Avenue.

It's just learning

to be very flexible

and just never giving up,

and just fighting to the last minute,

'til you finally secure the location.

But then we ended up

diagonal from each other,

which is truly how it's

written in the script,

so everything always works out, you know?

We're using a special type of makeup.

We could have gone out

and got actual rub-off tatoos made

to make this process easier

for the limited number of

days that she's on it,

we'll just hand paint them like this.

As you know, the

process of being a producer

and putting a film together,

finding the right crew with the right vibe,

and everyone gets along as such,

so my overall with, who we have

on this project right now,

has been totally awesome.

Everyone's cooperative,

everyone works well,

communication is there,

and the project's moving

along at a great pace,

and I can appreciate that.

It is 6:
44, running behind,

but we're going to make it up.

We're gonna get ready to be done

with 8 and 4/8th pages in about nine hours.

This company called MACV,

he provided a lot of their gear,

uniforms, the tents, stuff like that.

I was more about connecting with people

and doing my research

and making sure everything

was period-appropriate,

because I don't want any

Marines seeing this movie

and picking anything out,

and being like, "Hey, that's

not how it happened,"

or "We didn't have that there."

I was also in desert storm,

so I was able to draw upon my experience

of being in the desert,

being over there when missiles

were flying overhead.

Things like that to things you

don't really wanna recall,

but in this case, it served a purpose.

The biggest challenge

for me was the arm.

Jane Smith is a burn victim,

and originally in the script,

she wasn't a burn victim.

She had CP, and we decided to change it

to a burn victim for the story,

the director decided to change it,

so I've had collodion on my arm

to produce the scar

damage and tissue damage.

That's been really hard because the removal

and application of the actual collodion

is very rough on my skin,

and surprisingly, that

has affected all aspects

of performance because

it hinders my movement,

and it's on my mind,

but at the same time, it helps me because

that's something that a burn

victim would deal with.

Films are normally done with

a lot of emotion from the

director and the writer anyway,

but in this case, I just

felt something different

in Nitara and Maury,

I mean they're just good people,

and it's something I knew

I wanted to be a part of.

She had us go out and

have, like, family days,

where it's just us hangin' out at the park,

playin' ball, just 'til

all of us are, you know,

familiar and comfortable with each other,

so once we get on set,

it's not just, you know,

strangers, you know, acting.

This past year, it was really

great to see how excited

she was, and how much this

project meant to her,

because it makes you wanna

work that much harder,

and just do everything you

can, you know what I mean?

Because that's what she's doing.

He needs some love.

Nitara's directing

is actually much different

than in rehearsals.

On set, this is what she tells me.

"Just look good on film!"

So, I know what she means by that, though,

because we did so much rehearsal.

I see great

things for this film,

I really do.

I think it's a fantastic project,

a great subject matter,

and I think it's well

done with great actors,

great direction, great everybody.

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